Thursday, September 2, 2010
ICY DOCK MB991IK-B 2.5-inch SATA Bay Enclosure Review @ ThinkComputers.org
"“The market has been flooded with a lot of 2.5-inch drives. There are so many different enclosures being released to fit all of our 2.5-inch drive needs for those older cases without the 2.5-inch hard drive mounting brackets for the more current solid state drives (SSD’s). The Icy Dock MB991IK-B offers a lot of features jammed packed into this little 3.5” front bay enclosure. So let’s put the Icy Dock MB991IK-B to the test and see how it handles all of our benchmarks."
More information can be found
here.
ECS A890GXM-A AMD 890GX Motherboard Review @ Legit Reviews
"Today, we take a look at the ECS A890GXM-A, a new board based on the 890GX chipset from AMD. This board is part of the Black Series of motherboards from ECS, which means that it is a board that is geared more to the performance and overclocking end for enthusiasts. The Black series seems to have done very well, and we expect to see some great results as we test this board today..."
More information can be found
here.
PNY GeForce GTX 460 OC XLR8 Video Card @ Benchmark Reviews
"NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 460 graphics solution has convincingly dominated the mid-range price point, and its GF104 Fermi architecture
threatens several competing high-performance products. Our benchmark tests have concluded that both the 768MB and 1GB version can offer great gaming
performance, along with outstanding overclocking headroom. Combined into a SLI set, two stock-speed GeForce GTX 460's compete with the Radeon HD 5870
in terms of frame rate performance. In this article, Benchmark Reviews takes the highly overclocked PNY 'XLR8 Black Box' video card (model
VCGGTX4601XPB-OC) and compares it against a field of DirectX-11 graphics solutions. If you're shopping for a powerful middle-market video card, this
externally-exhausting 1GB GeForce GTX 460 product could be the perfect fit."
More information can be found
here.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
MSI GTX 460 HAWK 1 GB @ techPowerUp
"MSI's GTX 460 HAWK is the flagship GeForce GTX 460 from MSI. It comes with a quiet Twin Frozr II cooler, 1 GB of memory and 781 MHz core clock out of the box. MSI has also expanded on the voltmodding capability of the card which supports software control for three voltages."
More information can be found
here.
Cooler Master Elite 430 System Enclosure reviewed in Metku.net
"So far our personal favorite on the budget category has remained the Antec Three hundred. Now Cooler Master has
designed a competitor to the 300 - The Elite 430 Black."
More information can be found
here.
Ineo I-NA309D Pro Dual-Bay RAID Enclosure @ Bjorn3D
"Though USB 3.0 is now becoming affordable to a average user, the amount of products that fully utilize its performance is small. There are already many USB 3.0 devices, but most of them are designed for single bay hard drives, especially in the 3.5' and 2.5' form factors, neither of which take advantage of the full performance of the USB 3.0 interface. Users can choose USB 3.0 compatible SSDs, which offer the full performance advantages of USB 3.0, but these SSDs are often expensive and lacking in storage capacity. Whether backing up files, or working on film editing through the USB 3.0 interface, the capacity and performance of the USB 3.0 device will determine which product users will choose."
More information can be found
here.
Corsair A50 Performance CPU Cooler Review @ ThinkComputers.org
"“Today we have the opportunity to checkout Corsair’s new line of CPU coolers. Corsair has two different series of CPU coolers: the Air Series and the Hydro Series. We have a chance to check out the Air Series A50, which is mainly designed to out beat entry-level and stock CPU coolers. This is the first ever CPU cooler from Corsair that we’ve reviewed here at ThinkComputers, so let’s take a look further into Corsairs’ investments into CPU Cooling."
More information can be found
here.
BitFenix Colossus Full Tower PC Case Review @ Legit Reviews
"Being a pre-production first offering from a new company, I was impressed with the Colossus and BitFenix. The Colossus's design and build is nice, solid, and laid out well. I really like the SofTouch coating; it has a very different look and feel to it. Normally LED lighting is not my thing, but the Colossus has an interesting look to it, almost TRON like. The ability to shut the lighting off is a massive plus as sometimes you just don't want extra light in a room, and the Colossus will light up a small room..."
More information can be found
here.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
World-Exclusive: BitFenix Colossus Case @ techPowerUp
"BitFenix may be a new brand but their first product has landed. The Colossus case is so large that you simply cannot miss it. It is packed to the rim with new and unique features, which make you wonder what we did without them before. We take an in-depth look at the retail version of this massive EATX case that goes for a very affordable 159 Euros."
More information can be found
here.
StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty @ Bjorn3D
"How does one measure the true success of a game? Sales figures from the first few months may be an indicator, but many games flare up, sell en masse due to hype, and then fade away in obscurity. The mark of a truly successful game, then, must be how long people keep playing it. In that regard, the original StarCraft must be one of the most successful games available. Released in 1998, the game has sold over 11 million copies (source: Wikipedia), and has a strong following amongst RTS-gamers who see it as one of the most balanced RTS-games ever created. It isn’t a coincidence that it is StarCraft that is used for online game sports in South Korea."
More information can be found
here.
ASRock 880G Extreme3 Motherboard Review @ Legit Reviews
"The performance of the ASRock 880G Extreme3 was just as we expected. It performs very well and gives you a great platform for your upgrade dollars. As a bonus, UCC was able to unlock the fourth core, which not all boards (like the ECS board we tested against) are able to do. You will not be disappointed with the way this board handles at all..."
More information can be found
here.
ASUS SBC-06D1S-U External Slim Blu-ray Combo Drive Review @ ThinkComputers.org
"“Last year we took a look at ASUS’s first external Blu-ray combo drive, the SBC-04D1S-U. It was the perfect external combo drive for a laptop or desktop and received a perfect 10 out of 10 score in our testing. ASUS has updated the SBC-04D1S-U with faster Blu-ray read speeds and a few other features. They are calling this new combo drive the SBC-06D1S-U. Let’s see if ASUS can make this drive any better than the previous drive we tested!"
More information can be found
here.
NZXT Internal USB Expansion Module Model IU01 Review @ Tweaknews
"Frankly, when I first looked at NZXT's IU01 internal USB module I was prepared to be underwhelmed. After putting it through its paces, I now see how wrong first impressions can be. The device performed as advertised and can really be a boon to users with insufficient USB port availability and/or power hungry USB devices."
More information can be found
here.
Monday, August 30, 2010
Desktop PC Platform - Saved By Overclocking @ Benchmark Reviews
"The desktop hardware industry was made popular by knowledgeable members of the community willing to share their overclocking experience
with others. Passionate hobbyists aligned with similar goals graciously helped eager learners to tweak hardware components until they performed like
the next model in the series, but pre-tweaked enthusiast products were slowly driving down the number of people who qualify as overclockers. It's not
easy watching our hobby get dumbed-down to the point where the push of a button can replace years of trial-and-error experience. At some point, the
real overclockers will return to save the desktop platform."
More information can be found
here.
In Win Dragon Slayer MicroATX Mini Tower PC Case Review @ Legit Reviews
"The Dragon Slayer from In Win is a very nice little case. The metal mesh front and side panels give it a nice look and allow for good air flow. With the Dragon Slayer falling in the $75-100 range it’s got a fair amount of cases to compete with. Unlike most mini towers in its price range the Dragon Slayer has more cooling, can accommodate larger coolers and has the 5th expansion slot that most mini towers don't have. The other side of that coin is that when most are looking at a mini tower they are looking for a small case..."
More information can be found
here.
Gigabyte H55M-USB3 @ Bjorn3D
"When Intel's Clarkdale-based processors were released this past January, Gigabyte jumped into action creating some of the best H55 boards available. With the new Clarkdale-based processors, the H55M includes built in graphics, making this setup great for people looking to build smaller PC's like HTPC's, small form factor web PC's, and small servers. With low power consumption and no need for a GPU (due to Intel's Clarkdale-based CPU), these computers save power and and are extremely efficient. The H55M USB3 we are looking at today also enters the new world of USB 3.0, giving this new setup an extra advantage."
More information can be found
here.
Samsung EX1 10-Megapixel Digital Camera Review @ ThinkComputers.org
"“When people think of manufacturers who make compact digital cameras, few will probably think of Samsung. Though recently, it seems Samsung has been building more photographic equipment, and been doing a great job of it too. The latest compact digital camera from Samsung to reach the market is the EX1. With its compact metal body, an impressive F1.8-2.4 optical zoom lens capable of 24mm at the wide-angle and an articulated screen, it looks like Samsung is serious about their cameras. There are many features of the Samsung EX1 that was unexpected but highly desirable, the impressive F1.8 aperture capability, their high quality OLED articulated rear display and the ability to capture images in RAW (an uncompressed/lossless file format)."
More information can be found
here.
Vantec Nexstar CX SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Hard Drive Enclosure Review @ Tweaknews
"Vantec's NexStar CX is a budget-friendly USB 3.0 enclosure that pairs with your favorite hard drive to create an easy to use external storage solution. Not only does it carry a reasonable price tag, it features blazing fast speeds thanks to the USB 3.0 interface and the passive cooling translates into silent operation."
More information can be found
here.
Genius MaxFire Pandora-Pro USB Mini Gamepad @ Benchmark Reviews
"Sometimes I find that playing games with a keyboard just does not cut it. Games that require quick action such as platform games or
puzzle games don't always work as well using a computer keyboard. Game pads feel much more natural when you are trying to defeat your opponent in a
fighting game, or get to the next grueling level on a fast paced puzzle game. There are a variety of game pads, and Benchmark Reviews has tested many
of these game pads over the years. Genius has provided Benchmark Reviews the Mini USB Maxfire Pandora Pro. This is a type of game pad that is often
overlooked in this segment, a small and portable game pad. With features such as the ability to fold into a small package and turbo buttons, the
Pandora Pro promises features from the larger types of game pads, but in a might more portable package. Read the full article on Benchmark Reviews to
see if they can deliver."
More information can be found
here.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
AXLE GeForce GTX 468 Ace 1 GB @ techPowerUp
"AXLE's GeForce GTX 460 ACE is the first GTX 460 to come with a triple slot cooling solution, by Arctic Cooling in this case. The card also comes pre-overclocked out of the box which results in a healthy performance boost over the reference design."
More information can be found
here.